Video Games: Grand Theft Auto IV

I’ve heard how great Grand Theft Auto IV is supposed to be — IGN has it as number 14 in the top 25 modern PC games — but I never had much of a desire to play it. I had played the previous three Grand Theft Autos — III, Vice City, and San Andreas — and spend many hours in each, and yet I just couldn’t get compelled to do more of that. For one thing, I think I am a bit more turned off now by how vulgar the games are now. And despite all the great reviews, I just wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just going to be more of the same with better graphics.

Well, a little while ago Amazon had a deal where you got the Steam keys for Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV together for just $25. If you wanted Max Payne by itself, it was $60. So I was like, “Well how bad must Grand Theft Auto IV be?”

Oh, as for Max Payne, I can testify that slowmo diving into groups of enemies with dual guns blazing never gets old.

Anyway, I finally got to trying Grand Theft Auto IV a couple weeks ago and have put six hours into. And I have put it down for Dark Souls in the meantime. It’s obviously a well made game and that gameplay did thrill me in the past, but now it’s just kind of eh. What made Grand Theft Auto so great was all the stuff you can do and areas to explore, but it just doesn’t catch me anymore. The different parts of the gameplay are all adequate but not great. Shooting involves hitting someone until his health meter goes down — which just seems so clunky and videogamey compared to things like Call of Duty (or Max Payne 3). Hand to hand fighting is more advanced than previous ones, but still nothing special. And there are a bunch of mini-games you can do — darts, bowling, and pool so far — all of which are boring. And between doing stuff, there is much lengthy driving around town. And I’m still stuck to just one of the three islands and I get frustrated when its making me drive from one end to the other again so who knows what it will be like when the whole map is opened up. And I don’t find the story compelling. Niko is a new immigrant who seems nice enough, but he’s soon doing hits for random guys for no reason.

Also, though this isn’t much of a factor since it’s all in the background, there’s these parodies of Republicans and FOX News. Now, Rockstar North which makes the Grand Theft Auto series is in the United Kingdom, and liberals in this country have enough trouble being ignorant and hateful of conservatives, but from another country… well, you’ll yearn for the understand we get from MSNBC.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten that far into it and will give it another try. Maybe I’ll wait until I get a new gamepad with analog triggers as that will make driving easier (I actually played all the others on keyboard which was great for shooting but sucked on driving). But I was just expect more from Grand Theft Auto IV and for it to be more different than previous.

8 Comments

I like the Fallout 3 and New Vegas games. Oddly they both include a little bit of prostitution, which as a player, DOES NOTHING FOR ME. but your character gets a “well rested” bonus for using one. Which just goes to show they are doing it wrong. The game would have been just fine without that feature.

Now that I’m into it, I’m enjoying GTA4. But you’re right. Nothing special that sets it apart from the others. It kind of annoys me, actually, having to break from what I’m doing so I can take some character out to play pool so his feelings don’t get hurt. But playing the straight story, eh – it could be worse.

If you haven’t skydived onto a roof of a skyscraper, flown around in a helicopter gunning down speed boats, and went on a rampage in a firetruck giving people the hose (they didn’t put the lotion on the skin), then you haven’t played GTA 4.

The game itself as far as story and whatnot is kind of meh I suppose, but as far as being a big play ground its awesome. Play through to unlock everything, leave the gun, take the cannoli, hop into a helicopter and go have fun.

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